Echoes of Avalon

After 3 in-game days have elapsed, every morning there is an increasing chance for a special person to spawn nearby, that being... The legendary wizard himself, Merlin!

*Don't mind the construction tape and inert crystal at the top of his wand, I felt a little whimsy

Merlin is the first (*and only) NPC you will encounter in the mod, announcing his presence by teleporting in with a lightning strike and causing a cascading particle wave to expand outwards, making it easier to find out his rough whereabouts.
Merlin will only spawn on the surface and will choose a random player to spawn around in multiplayer scenarios. Upon spawning in, Merlin will wander in one direction for a while before teleporting away after travelling roughly 100 blocks.
Should you however intercept him and chat with him, he will stay in the spot for a good while before actually departing.

And yes, you read that correctly, 'chat with him'. Upon interacting with Merlin, a Dialogue Screen will pop up, where your choices will dictate what happens next.

If chatting ain't your forte or you just simply wish to fast-forward the conversation portions, clicking the dialogue box or pressing Space/Enter will skip to the choice prompt/end of dialogue.

*While the first release barely uses this feature, expect quests and other 'fun' interactions in the future!

*For now, Merlin is simply a bartering NPC, supplying you with ways to experience some of the future Arthurian Artifacts you'll obtain from running the instanced dungeons.

Shield Parrying is a gimmick you'll likely bump into even before experiencing the main meat of the mod itself given it is already present on the vanilla shield.


Whenever you begin blocking with an item with a Parry Window, you'll notice two shield halves encroaching on your crosshair. Parrying happens only whenever the shield is fully formed. 
The reward for a successful parry is reflecting the melee damage or projectile back to the attacker and preventing damage to your shield, with some items interacting with this system further.

*Future enemies will take advantage of this mechanic, so mastering it early will give you an advantage later down the line!

Additionally some weapons have an attack chain they go through as you use them, resetting when swapping or not having attacked in a while.

Some weapons also charge themselves through some means to unleash their abilities.

*As the project is in early stages so far, the descriptions cant really go into much specifics on these 2 as there is only really one example each

An adventure into the world of Arthurian Legends wouldn't be without fancy artifacts. From the commonly known Excalibur (*or here for now it's lesser form, Caliburn) and the Holy Grail to some lesser known items like Pridwen, Arthur's Shield, or Fail-Not, Tristan's Bow, the goal is to get as many of them
as possible in here, giving all of them abilities worthy their Legendary Status!

*Right now, you won't be getting the real deal, only 'visions' of a few finished items. The major difference being that visions have durability, can't be enchanted or repaired.

Caliburn

Despite not in it's prime as the fabled Excalibur, Caliburn still packs a punch! The first two strikes in its hit chain always sweep and the third is always a crit, dealing 200% damage!

Pridwen

Arthur's Shield bolsters better blocking angle coverage and a bigger parry window.

The Holy Grail

The ultimate drinking vessel, allowing you to scoop up liquids for limitless drinking. Each liquid has its own unique effects:

• Water - Heals 5 Hearts, Replenishes Air and grants the Dampening effect, reducing damage taken but also dealt
• Lava - Extinguishes burning and grants Fire Resistance. Additionally grants a Regeneration effect based on the consumed burning duration.
• Milk - Removes most negative debuffs and prevents a future negative effect from being applied.

Clarent

Arthur's blade of peace turned ultimate downfall by Mordred's hand allows for parrying attacks. Successful parries charge up Clarent, increasing its damage reduction while blocking up to 25%. Alternatively Clarent with charge will also join your main hand strikes as additional damage support.

Misc

Crystal Cube

A decorative block that emits some light, with its future purpose yet to be revealed!

Brownsteel & Lapis Exilis

Acquired from Merlin (*for now), used to craft the other mod items. Brownsteel can also be turned into blocks.

I'd like to dedicate this section to what I can only describe as explainations for certain choices in regards to the many, many source materials of the Arthurian Legends.

First of all I'd like to thank Wikipedia, Nightbringer and the many other sources that perserve folk lore in an easily accessible form as this project would struggle to go in much depth without them.

With that out of the way, the first aspect that needs to be brought up is the themes of religion. The source material is themed around religion and Celtic folklore and while the themes of being virtuous are lovely I'm not going to focus too heavily on them. I'd much rather shine the spotlight onto the Celtic Mythos aspects which don't get much coverage.
So in case you disapprove of me choosing to go for Caliburn instead of Caledfwlch, don't worry! That name is not lost upon me and will come back, just not right now.
This directly affects some items like the Holy Grail, which I chose to reinterpret by following Eschenbach's interpretation in Parzival where the Grail is replaced with a heavenly stone under the name Lapis Exilis. As such tying it a little bit to minecraft's Lapis which is already a magical conduit in enchanting and reimagining the Grail as a cup forged from what is essentially perfected lapis.

Since we are already speaking of one of the two materials available in the mod as of writing this, might as well explain, what in the world is 'Brownsteel' and where it came from. As crazy as it sounds, I didn't make it up and in fact the name pops up in the chronicle simply known as 'Arthur' dated around 1428.
In it the famous sword commonly known to the modern audience as Excalibur was simply known as 'Brownsteel'. While technically a valid name for the sword I chose to instead repurpose it into the metal you'll use to forge some arthurian artifacts.

That's all I have for the nerd corner for now, I'll be expanding this should something new and interesting pop up worth mentioning.